What would it take to get Hillary Clinton to drop her bid for the White House? Endless stories about back room strategies, desperate e-mails, and superdelegate push-plays are all over the Internet today. Newsweek's Jonathan Alter even has New York Dems bribing Hillary Clinton with the governor's mansion if she would just step aside and let Barack Obama have the nomination he's earned by the delegate count. I suspect that none of that will work, and that Hillary Clinton will not drop out, even if she wins not another contest between now and June 4. I just don't see her doing it. Why? Page two of the Politico's Hillary story today had a hint:
Describing the mood in Washington, a top Democratic strategist who supports Clinton said: “There’s a little bit of a deathwatch going on. Instead of, ‘Who’s going to win?’ the chatter is, ‘How’s it going to unfold?’” The strategist added: “There is general panic among Democrats. The big question is: Does she walk to the door, or is she shown to the door?” The reason some Democrats believe Clinton needs to be escorted from the race is not that they dispute her claims that the race is agonizingly close. It is that they see few scenarios in which she can finish the primary calendar ahead in elected delegates or the popular vote. By this logic, denying the favored candidate of African-Americans — the party’s most loyal constituency — if Obama is ahead could rupture the party. Clinton is not moved by these claims. Close advisers to her emphasized over the weekend that she is going nowhere — not simply as a matter of politics but of personal temperament. Like her husband, she is constitutionally averse to quitting. What’s more, her public argument that she is the more electable candidate is only a pale version of her private thoughts and those of Bill Clinton. They firmly believe that Obama is unready to face a general election or, if he wins, a presidency that would follow.
Hillary, who probably should have run in 2004 but blinked, doesn't believe that Barack can win the general, and she knows full well that this is the Dems' best shot since 1992. (In their arrogance, they also believe that a sitting Senator with just two years less time in the Senate and more legislative experience in total would fare worse in the White House than small state governor Bill Clinton did at around Barack's age in 1992...)
It's like the year the New York Knicks almost won a ring the year Michael Jordan was "retired" and playing baseball, but Patrick Ewing blew it with that damned finger roll. HRC and Co. think Barack is Patrick Ewing. That, or they hope he is... I think the Clintons have it wrong, but that thinking does explain their desperation to get the nomination (or, I believe, to get on the ticket.) Because besides what they believe about November, Hillary can count the years, and she knows that she has very little time left to run for president. 2008, maybe 2012, and then that's it. Her window closes. John McCain will have a hard enough time running for president as the geezer candidate. Imagine how much harder it would be to run as Geezer Girl...Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, presidential candidates |
